Family Skills & Community Program

All parents/carers are equally valued as part of our school community. Children's learning is improved when we work in partnership with their parents/carers, and their wider family. We therefore believe in close cooperation with all families, and in regular consultation between the home and the school. At Tudor Primary School we actively encourage and support parental learning and involvement in order to:

· Enhance the learning experiences of all pupils;

· Encourage parents and carers to be involved in the children's learning;

·Provide a partnership between home and school, seeking to ensure that families feel welcome and valued;

·To ensure that maximum use is made of all these adults' skills to enrich learning opportunities.

All staff including the Head teacher (Ms Kalra) and senior staff work very closely together with children, parents and staff to ensure that Tudor has a clear vision and to ensure that it is a safe, supportive environment where children can grow, learn and succeed.

Our rolling Family Learning program has included:

Coffee Mornings

These are usually held fortnightly. Parents/carers are invited to attend these informal sessions, where they are able to meet and chat with the Head Teacher and other members of the Senior Leadership Team. This is a great opportunity to share any ideas, tell us what we are doing well and also what we could to do to make our school even better. We may also use this to share information of interest to parents.

Parents Evenings

We inform individual parents at parents/ Carers evenings about their child’s achievements and progress. We also share targets and next steps for the child to work on. Parents’ Evenings occur every term.

Curriculum Meetings and workshops

We hold curriculum meetings and workshops focusing on different areas of learning, for example: maths, reading, writing, E-safety, Healthy eating etc. to explain our teaching strategies and how parents /carers can support their child at home.

Soft Start

The school doors are opened to the children at 8.40am to start the school day. Pupils from Reception through to Year 6 are encouraged to go straight to their class to start on the morning's Soft Start activity which their class teachers have set up for them.

This ‘soft start’ environment enables the children to settle down very quickly for the day, putting them in the right frame of mind for optimum learning.

Stay and play

Parents are invited into the nursery every week to engage in stay and play. Stay and play is a purposeful event where the nursery staff skilfully teach parents how to interact with their children to develop their learning through play. Parents learn a lot from our stay and play sessions and enjoy actively taking part.

FRED

FRED stands for Fathers Reading Every Day (FRED). It is a 4 week programme designed to get in the habit of reading with your child every day. What happens is you share a book with your child for at least 5 minutes a day for the first 2 weeks, and at least 10 minutes a day for the second 2 weeks.

Multi – Family group

Our specially trained staff have run this program in the past to support shared parenting issues and questions. Parents have given positive feedback saying that it was very help to discuss and find solutions together with other parents and trained staff.

MEND

The MEND Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire children, families and adults to lead and sustain fitter, healthier and happier lives. It does this by helping families change unhealthy attitudes about food and activity (Mind), keep physically active on a regular basis (Exercise), learn how to choose foods that are healthy, tasty and nutritious (Nutrition), and take action to maintain a healthy lifestyle - for life. MEND were able to host a 10 week program on site for our pupils which was very successful.

Themed Weeks and Days

Themed weeks and days are designed to widen the children’s experiences. Examples have been: friendship week, well-being week, maths week, airport day etc. parents/carers are always welcome and encouraged to help plan and attend. Our very successful Wellbeing week last term included a number of popular workshops for parents including managing anger & anxiety, Yoga and IT .

Speaking English with confidence

This course was run for 20 weeks by 2 staff members in home languages. Parents were helped to develop their understanding and use of the English language.

English My Way

English My Way is a 24 week blended learning programme focused on supporting adults who have low English language skills, or none at all, to become a part of their local communities. This is currently being run on site and is delivered by an external provider.

The English My Way syllabus is:

Designed to help learners develop skills and confidence in reading, writing, listening and speaking English. These learners may also have literacy issues in their own language.

Flexible: you can run all sessions over a shorter period of time if you need to.

Blended: the programme is designed to be delivered through a mix of tutor-led sessions, online learning and volunteer group activity.